Blog Post for August 22, 2023
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On Sunday, August 12, I first published the first chapter of my ongoing story titled Murder’s Row (which I actually hadn’t come up with a name for by that point). I unfortunately deleted that original version of the chapter, but the new link to the first chapter is arguably doing much better than the original one would have ever been able to. (To see what link I am referring to, click here.)
As such, here are a number of changes I made to the original version of the chapter and some other new updates involving to my blog page in the one week and three days since first publishing the first chapter of my story:
Update #1: I put the map depicted at the beginning of this blog post as my blog banner. It seems fitting as it is a map of London created over the span of the years 1824, 1825, and 1826, which was at the maximum extent, only eight years removed from the year which my story is intending to take place (it was really hard trying to find a map from the 1830s of London. You’d be surprised).
Update #2: I decided to correct an area of my story that was in the past tense when it should’ve been in the present tense like the rest of the story. This correction comes up when I am describing the appearance of William “Archie” Scott. The original text reads:
“Hello!” says a man who appeared to be waiting for him in a bubbly and vivacious voice. “How has London treated you thus far?” — he then holds out one of his hands to make a handshake with Jack. The man was a few (two to be exact) inches taller than Jack, had a medium-sized build, and a slightly grown-out ginger beard and mustache.
As you can see, one of the sentences in the above text has been bolded. This sentence was changed to read, “The man is a few (three to be exact) inches taller than Jack, has a medium-sized build, and a slightly grown out beard and mustache.”
I also changed Scott’s hair color, which I describe in greater detail when I talk about Update #3.
Update #3: My image of Mr. Scott has also changed since I initially envisaged him. One instance of these kinds of changes is that, I made him be three inches taller than Jack instead of two inches taller than him (although, what does it really matter, you wouldn’t really be able to tell a difference in the real world), and I decided to seclude the color of his hair being ginger to just the beard portion of his body (I feel like we’ve all seen people who have one hair color for the top of their heads and another for their facial features, so take that how you will). I also decided to make his hair have an unkempt nature to it to be able to enunciate the free-spirited persona that he embodies/personifies.
Update #4: I also made another very minute change later in the chapter where Mr. Scott tells Jack “‘you pay for your three-week stay per usual, but any time extra you spend here, the cost to you shall be waived.’” In this instance, I changed where it says “three week stay” to “three-week stay” because it seemed more fitting.
Other minor spelling changes I made throughout the story include at the very end when Jack is looking out of his hotel window. Where it said “fourth floor window”, I added a hyphen, so it would read “fourth-floor window.” Additionally, near the beginning, I described Jack by writing that he has “a black mustache and is wearing a hat that looks Italian but it also has a brim around it.”
The way I changed this is by adding a small detail to that sentence to make the hat a “light-colored hat that looks Italian…”
Similarly, I added another hyphen towards the very end of the piece where it said “buttoned-up, red-felt suit and trapezoid-shaped hat (the longest side is on the top) which has darker colored edges on its sides…”, I made it read instead as “(the longest side is on the top) which has darker-colored edges.”
Also towards the end of the chapter, where it says “Jack then thanks the chauffeur, then sits down on the room’s cot because he was evidently tired on his soles from all the walking he has done,” I changed the word “soles” to “feet” because it just sounded more proper.
Update #5: The last update, while in line with the ones already described above (and coincidentally involves the same word as the one listed above), is more of a grammatical mistake, and is why I have made it its own update section.
This change comes at the very beginning of the chapter when I write “the usual flood of voices talking over one another and the sound of a cacophony of the souls of numerous shoes hitting the pavement ground down to just a few hollers as the hustle-and-bustle of the city’s local street markets dried up…”, wherein I changed the word “souls” to “soles” as soles is the more proper word to use in this situation.
It also is an example of two homophones, a word that sounds like another word, but is spelt different than it, has a different definition, and which possibly could have a different origin as well. That is why grammar is so important, because no matter how hard you try, you could type one word that sounds identical to another word, but is the wrong one to be using in that situation. (I’m sure you can tell that I’m a grammar Nazi: I literally just explained why good grammar is necessary).
Story-Relevant Location
The image above depicts an X marking where the “mildly tan,” “shabby-looking man” rested himself for which the locals of the area found him unresponsive to their attempts to wake him up.
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Thanks as always!
